Outside the Box 10/11/22: “Losing Ground”

Producer/Host: Larry Dansinger

About the host:
Larry Dansinger (no pronouns) of Bangor came to Maine in 1974 and has been here ever since. Some of Larry’s activities since then: Done community organizing on numerous issues through INVERT and then Resources for Organizing and Social Change (ROSC), committed civil disobedience several times, grown a garden yearly since 1977, joined various food cooperatives and two men’s groups, refused to pay federal income taxes for war, lived on a community land trust for 23 years, and met a wonderful partner whom Larry has loved for over 40 years. Larry has produced Outside the Box features on WERU since 2007 and continues to look for unique ways of seeing almost any problem or situation.

The Nature of Phenology 10/8/22: Crickets Chirping

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn
Host: Hazel Stark

Now’s the time to revel in the last of the chirping crickets for the season—unless of course they’re under your bed.

Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com

About the host/writers:
Joe Horn lives in Gouldsboro, is Co-Founder of Maine Outdoor School, L3C, and is a Registered Maine Guide and Carpenter. He is passionate about fishing, cooking, and making things with his hands. He has both an MBA in Sustainability and an MS focused in Environmental Education. Joe can be reached by emailing [email protected]

Hazel Stark lives in Gouldsboro, is Co-Founder and Naturalist Educator at Maine Outdoor School, L3C, and is a Registered Maine Guide. She loves taking a closer look at nature through the lens of her camera, napping in beds of moss, and taking hikes to high points to see what being tall is all about. She has an MS in Resource Management and Conservation and is a lifelong Maine outdoorswoman. Hazel can be reached by emailing [email protected]

The Cosmic Curator 10/8/22: How Do You Know What You Know?

This is your Cosmic Curator, Tom Yaroschuk, with a look at the celestial vibe for Saturday October 8th and the week ahead.

Well folks, there is lots of energy today and the tomorrow.. I mean, we’re talking about overflow.
That because We are coming up to one of the most brilliant full moons of the year on Sunday night. This moon and sun illuminate the Pisces – Virgo axis – the axis of knowing. Its about how you know what you know. Or stated another way, where do you get your information from.

Let me explain…

About the Host:
Tom Yaroschuk is a Vedic Astrologer. His intention is to help people understand their karma and the issues they may confront to cultivate more fulfilling lives. Tom is writing a memoir of the spiritual lessons derived from his work in a Homeless Day Center in between a career as an award winning television and documentary producer.

Earthwise 10/8/22: Element of Wood

Producer/Host: Anu Dudley

About the host:

Rev. Dr. Anu Dudley is an ordained Pagan minister and a retired history professor. She continues to teach classes, including the three-year ordination curriculum at the Temple of the Feminine Divine, and others such as History of the Goddess, Paganism 101, Ethical Magic, and Introduction to the Runes. Currently she is writing a book about how to cast the runes using their original Goddess meanings. She lives in the woods off-grid in a small homesteading community in Central Maine.

Conversations from the Pointed Firs 10/7/22: Jefferson Navicky

Host:Peter Neill
Producer: Trisha Badger
Music by Casey Neill

Conversations from the Pointed Firs is a monthly audio series with Maine-connected authors and artists discussing new books and creative projects that invoke the spirit of Maine, its history, its ecology, its culture, and its contribution to community and quality of life.

This month:
In this month’s edition of Conversations from the Pointed Firs, host Peter Neill and archivist Jefferson Navicky discuss the long history of women writers in Maine, their work well-known and sometimes forgotten, representing an essential contribution and expression of the unique place and creative spirit of Maine.

Jefferson is a former member of the editorial board of The Cafe Review, and is a long-time Poetry Out Loud judge throughout Maine. Jefferson is an author and a playwright; he has written three books: “Antique Densities: Modern Parables & Other Experiments in Short Prose” (2021), winner of the 2022 Maine Literary Book Award for Poetry, as well as the poetic novel “The Book of Transparencies” (2018) and the story collection, “The Paper Coast” (2018). His plays have been produced in the Boston Theater Marathon, multiple times in the Maine Playwrights Festival, and in small venues across New England. His ten-minute play, “One Master Appetite,” was included in Ten Best Ten-Minute Plays of 2015, published by Smith & Kraus, Inc. Jefferson has held residencies at the I-Park Foundation, Stonington Opera House, St. Luke’s Cathedral, and Hewnoaks.

Guest/s:
Jefferson Navicky, Author, poet, playwright, and archivist for the Maine Women Writers Collection.

About the host:
Peter Neill is founder and director of the World Ocean Observatory, a web-based place of exchange for information and educational services about the health of the ocean. In 1972, he founded Leete’s Island Books, a small publishing house specializing in literary reprints, the essay, photography, the environment, and profiles of indigenous healers and practitioners of complimentary medicine around the world. He holds a profound interest in Maine, its history, its people, its culture, and its contribution to community and quality of life.

Change Agents 10/6/22: Decriminalizing Homelessness

Producer/Host: Steve Wessler

Change Agents: Conversations with Advocates and Social Justice Advocate on WERU FM

This month:
My three guests all work with Preble Street on issues relating to homelessness. We discussed what it is like to sleep (or try to sleep) in shelters and a focus on the decriminalization of homeless people.
-The sheer number of homeless people on any night can be 1500
-Understanding what it is like to sleep in a crowded shelter
-Focusing on the criminalization of homeless people in Maine. Discussing why criminalization of homeless is counter-productive.

Guests:
Terrance Miller, is the director of advocacy at Preble Street
Tailor Gray directs Homeless Voices for Justice (HVP is an advocacy group with homeless people or former homeless people)
Lisa Franklin, formerly a homeless person and now working with Homeless Voice for Justice

About the host:
Steve Wessler will soon will be starting his 28th year of working on human right issues. He founded the Civil Rights Unit in the Maine Attorney’s Office in 1992 and led the Unit for 7 years. In 1999 he left the formal practice of law and founded the Center for the Prevention of Hate. The Center worked in Maine and across the USA. He and his colleagues worked to reduce bias and harassment in schools, in communities, in health care organization through workshops and conflict resolution. The Center closed in 2011 and Steve began a consulting on human rights issues. For the next 5 years much of his work was in Europe, developing and implementing training curricular for police, working in communities to reduce the risk of hate crimes, conflict resolution between police and youth. He has worked in over 20 countries. In late 2016 he began to work more in Maine, with a focus on reducing anti-immigrant bias. He continues to work in schools to reduce bias and harassment. Wessler teaches courses on human rights issues at the College of the Atlantic, the University of Maine at Augusta and at the School of Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University in northern Virginia.

Around Town 10/6/22: Update on Missing Person Graham Lacher

Producer/Host: Matt Murphy, filling in for Amy Browne

This week: We are back in Searsport, talking with Rolf Olsen, VP of the Board for Friends of Sears Island, and member of Maine’s Offshore Wind Port Advisory Group, which will advise the Governor and others as they consider location options for a new offshore wind construction and deployment facility. Friends of Sears Island, Islesboro Islands Trust and Sierra Club, Maine support offshore wind, but prefer that the facility be built on nearby Mack Point, which is already industrialized.

The Offshore Wind Port Advisory Committee is meeting today, September 29th, 2022, 9am – 4:30pm at MaineDOT Headquarters. The public is welcome and may attend by zoom. More information, the agenda, and registration for the zoom link can be found here

About the host:

Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices, Maine Currents and Maine: The Way Life Could Be, Amy also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and Maine Association of Broadcasters awards for her work in 2017 and 2021.